New Years Resolution...

newest earring design

I'm crazy right? Christmas is not even here yet, and here I go spouting off about the new year and whatever it is that I plan to resolve.

It's a symptom of my new found businesswoman status.

I've spent the last few months playing catch-up, and figuring out the hard way....you know how it goes. The short of it is, that my early entrepreneurial experiences have motivated me to a more proactive mindset. Measurable results of that mindset have yet to be achieved of course. But, hey, you gotta start somewhere.

You see, I am definitely a seat of the pants kinda girl. I thrive in the moment, and shine at the last minute. I find myself immensely frustrating sometimes.... but that is a whole other blog post. I have been learning to appreciate this side of myself in some ways, but in the realm of well strategized business plans, I tend to stress myself out and wait until 6 hrs before a craft show to try and pull it all together. I think I get a few extra gray hairs every show I do lol!

The new plan for the new year, is to give myself the rest of December to enjoy making holiday gifts, while filling orders on etsy of course. My guess is that the online shopping season is nearing it's end anyway. In the new year, I plan to make one item a day, for the month of January, and I'll start by restocking things that are listed in the shop. After holiday shows, at this point I could potentially be left with an empty shop so I have been leaving things listed that are easy to replicate and turn around quickly, like the snowflake earrings. Anyway, after two months of this behavior, I think less than half of what I have in the shop is actually made at this very moment, and if I plan to grow my business, I could easily get myself in trouble by not having ordered items available in a reasonable time frame.....so I will fix that forthwith after the first of the year. And I will ask you all to help keep me motivated and accountable....because it's always much more fun to make what I WANT to make instead of what needs to be made lol! So, with eyes on the prize of being well stocked and prepared for farmers market season, I will begin the new year.

Where does the time go!

Why it seems like just last week we were on a quiet sleigh ride throught the Wenatche National Forest.....

Oh wait, that WAS last week! Must say we had a most fantastic Thanksgiving holiday. We were able to take off for a few days to spend time with my Dad and his wife. Never having been to Lavenworth, we were just giggling with oodles of glee when we pulled into town! It is the best christmas town in America you know, according to HGTV.

Leavenworth is a little Bavarian village nestled in the mountains. We had to cross two passes to get there, only had to chain the tires once. We were in fact glad to be away from the dreaded memories of the frozen pipes, car repairs, and general mayhem of the days prior to our little excursion.... and our thanksgiving trek did just the trick.

There was sledding, a sleigh ride, and much frolicking in the snow. Me and Hubbs even escaped to town on foot for a much needed "date". Nothing says romance like hot cider and an international cheese tray appetizer in "cafe Motzart".

The littlest one had a fountainous runny nose upon arrival, so she and daddy opted for a nap instead of the wonderous sleigh ride.... but general merriment was had by all. We checked out many of the small shops, and yes, I did put the viking hats on the kids...just for pictures of course.

There's nothing quite like the look of "mom. is this completely necessary? really?" upon your darling child's face.

Well, upon our return, general mayhem resumed. I hate how mayhem can be so prompt. The rest of the family got the nasty crud that the little viking had the week before, and our serendipitous decision to buy christmas lights for the house resulted in another vehicle breakdown. sigh.

Alas, my wings are clipped as we are currently a one car family.....the problem with my purple-people-eater- of a minivan is one of those intermittent electrical gremlins chewing on the wires type of problems, and barring a winning lottery ticket, it will likely not be replaced any time soon. So I am stuck home when hubby is working. And I'm an out and about kinda girl, so when the general call for "girls night" went out via text message in my circle of aquaintance, I sent the "please come to my house I am STUCK HERE" plea and was graced with the presence of two kind friend bearing pizza and cookie dough---half of which we baked, and the other half, well......

now they are gone, and I am left alone in peace and quiet to work on some christmas presents. Thankfully I am all caught up after "Black Friday" and all that, so the shop can wait whist I create some pressies for the girlies....

Amigurumi. I didn't know that was a word. Anyway, being that my children are of the three and under genre, I can still get away with making them cute stuffed whatnots. We don't have cable or an antenna so they thankfully are spared from the onslaught of toy commercials, and are delighted by anything made of pink yarn. I actually found a bunch of free patterns for crochet playfood.... so I am busting out my yarn stash. Sadly, after straying for a few years from yarncraft, I pared down to one small bin of yarn. And it seems I didn't keep much plain worsted, but a quick trip to the craft store fixed that. Vanna's choice 2/$5? can't beat that. I'm gonna make play cupcakes, and dollies. And whatever else I can get my hands on patterns for.

I did a market research test of course before major crochet toy production began, and upon receiving this more traditional amigurumi cat, my daughter promptly asked for another kitty with legs on it. And eyebrows. (?) so I will be filling that order as well. I'd like to also make an amigurumi nativity. My mom had this cool plastic canvas one when I was little. It was nice to have a non-breakable baby Jesus. I always appreciated that, so maybe it's time I passed on that tradition to my wee princesses.

Anyway, 17 points for making through that post. Tomorrow we visit Santa at Home Depot. It's probably a ploy of theirs to get us to buy a tree while we are there, and, well.....it will work I can tell you that. :-) And while the budget doesn't allow for new LED lights for the tree (I am looking for a set of LED in twinkle lights....haven't seen such a thing yet.) We did end up purchasing a small amount of lighting for the outside of our house. Now. It's still early, and this is our first year on this block, but we are the only ones who seem to have made the jump into the new and mighty bright LED christmas light technology. Amidst the few houses lit with old-school bulbs, our house has a mildly radioactive appearance. Them things are seriously bright! I think I hear airplanes circling.